


Thin Trail of Stars

by hariboo



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 12:15:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11379984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hariboo/pseuds/hariboo
Summary: "There are facets of you that have nothing to do with me," Vax says."Very few," replies Vex.Older, younger, it makes no difference to their central truth: they were born together,  their first breaths were an echo of the other, and they will die together, or at least die trying to live together.





	Thin Trail of Stars

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: i just have a lot feelings about the twins. i get a bit au towards the end bc i wanted it to kinda fit canon but SCANLAN HAD TO GO BE RUDE and the timejump fucked up my headcanon, ALAS. i did not let that stop me. (this might get longer. i don't promise it though.)

_“You don’t understand, we haven’t been apart in about…”_

_“Ever.”_

_“Exactly.”_

Arguably, neither knows who was born first. They asked their mother a lot, a lot a lot, when they were children and she’d always say: _I don’t remember, you both looked so alike_. Then she’d kiss their cheeks as both twins would say: _But I’m a boy!_ and _But he’s a boy!_ And their mother would smile and kiss their cheeks again. 

Vax has always said he’s older. Vex has always let him say it. If he really is, it is just one more secret the twins keep. It doesn’t really matter to them in the end. Older, younger, it makes no difference to their central truth: they were born together, their first breaths were an echo of the other, and they will die together, or at least die trying to live together. 

The beginning of their story started in a small home that no longer exists.

The end of the story they’ve never imagined without the other.

The middle is in motion. A constant swirling motion that is both beautiful and terrible and that they never expected of themselves. 

-

When they were little they were mostly happy, that’s what they remember. 

They also remember: their mother, her smell, her smile, her warmth. She was so human and so wonderfully so. 

But there are things they won’t ever remember. They are:

That Vax’s first word was _‘ex_. That Vex’s first word was _Vax_. Vex spoke first. Vax followed a few days later. They’d repeat each other’s name over and over making each other smile. It’s a small thing not to remember, and sadly their mother never got a chance to tell them.

-

Vax holds memories of Byroden close to his heart. Vex keeps her memories of Byroden hidden in hers. They remember a lot of the same things and for a long time that was the nature of their lives. If one knew something and the other didn’t, it felt wrong. As they grew the twins learned to keep secrets from each other and how to lie to each other; it was born more of necessity and the need to protect each other (another thing that they’ve always done even without thinking it, even when mad at each other, even when it means the other will hurt instead) than the lack of trust. 

Ask either twin at any point in their life: Who do you love? Who do you trust? Who do you trust with your life? Who would kill for? Who would you die for? Who would you live for?

The answer at the top of a very short list would be: each other. 

More people get added to that list, but that takes many years. 

In Byroden, the list would also include their mother. 

They both remember the same things about their mother in different ways. Vax remembers the curly texture of her hair, Vex the oils she would use to keep it smooth and shiny. When they were young they both wished they had their mother’s curls. Their ink dark locks hung over their shoulder like slick sheets of dark ice. It was their father’s hair. When they would finally meet him, they’d start braiding their hair in earnest. Their mother’s hair was not slick straight, but it was thick and they had inherited its volume. It held braids better than any pure born elf hair. 

-

“Mama,” a six year old Vex says, crawling onto her mother’s bed and sitting across her mother’s thighs. “Teach me how to do the braids.” Her mother tends to wear her hair in a beautiful, lush braid that falls across her shoulder. 

“No, teach me!” Vax says, jumping on the bed after his sister. He tries climbing over her, trying to get closer to their mother’s lap. Vex fights back. “Ouch, Vex! Your elbows are pointy! Stop poking me!”

“They are not!”

“Are too!”

“Are not!”

“Are too—“ 

They roll around on their mother’s small bed. It’s only been a year or two since they all stopped sleeping on it because they’re not babies anymore. Sometimes though, they still squeeze in it when it’s too cold like it often is in winter.

“Sweetlings,” Mama says, one, twice, her work rough but still gentle hands pulling them apart. “Let’s stop this, I’ll teach you both.”

Vex and Vax stop wrestling, both looking up at their mother with matching eyes, making her smile. Vax has his fingers in Vex’s nose, Vex is biting his palm. At their mother’s words they untangle themselves and move to flank her side. They nod in unison, like they do a lot of things, and sit for the next hour as their mother teaches them to weave each other’s and her hair into neat braids. Vex makes a lot small and messy braids in her mother and her brother’s hair. Vax’s braids are by far neater and always will be even later in life when Vex gets better. 

After they leave their mother and after they come back to find their home made into cinder and ash, he’ll continue braiding his sister’s hair even when it doesn’t need it. It’s a comforting action to both of them and they both think of that afternoon with their mother’s hands guiding them, her voice gentle and patient in a way nobody will ever be with them again. 

\- 

They’re seven now. 

Vex is in a tree, her eyes red and dry, when Vax clambers up after her. She’s not crying. Well, not anymore. 

She’s not surprised Vax found her. This is their tree. A few years ago they thought of building a treehouse but they never managed it. They’re not very strong and nobody in town would help them. 

“Sister?” 

“Go away!” she yells, tossing a broken branch down to him. It bounces off the tree trunk next to him.

Vax rolls his eyes and pushes his hair out of his eyes. He makes his away to the branch next to her. “Yeah, no. What’s going on?”

“Nothing, go away!” She says again, moving her hair to cover her face. Her braid is messy and strands fall into her eyes. Vax scoffs and scoots closer. He tucks a strand behind her ear and she shakes her hair to cover them again. 

“You know I can tell when you lie.”

“Shut up! Vax!” She shoves at her brother who wasn’t expecting it and almost tips over. Vex’s eyes widen and she reaches out to pull him back to her. Her hand closes over his top. Vax catches himself on the branch and grasps at her other hand. They wobble in place for a couple seconds and then Vex hugs her brother tight to her. 

“Sorry, sorry!” Her arms are tight around him. A few birds that were on the branches near by fly away. 

If Vax feels a couple tears on his cheek and neck he says nothing. He clutches his sister to him. He’s not a fan of falling out of trees. Especially as high up as they are. 

Pulling away, he tugs on his sister’s left braid. “It’s okay, sister. It’s okay.”

Vex’ahlia’s eyes are a mirror of his own, but they are red rimmed and he knows what that means. He knows he’ll hurt anyone who made this happen. She shakes her head. “It’s not, it’s not. I’m sorry, brother. I— they made fun of my ears.” 

Vax glares. His eyes burn. Vex feels comforted under his anger, because she knows it’s not meant for her. 

“Tell me who and I’ll kick their ugly butts!” Vax growls and starts climbing down. Vex grabs at her brother. 

“No, don’t. It’s okay. I kicked them already.” Well, she tried. It didn’t work out too well, but she’ll get better and next time she’ll make sure it hurts. 

Vax looks at her, his eyes searching, and settles back down on the branch. He grabs hold of her hand and Vex twines the fingers. The anger in his eyes still burns but it lessens. “They’re still assholes.”

“Don’t let mother hear you say that.”

Vax rolls his eyes. “She’d say the same, or worse.” He tugs her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. 

Vex smiles and sniffles because she knows that’s true. They pretend that they don’t listen to when their mother curses at the people who say things about them. Half-breeds, bastards, mutts. Their mother never lets them hear what the people say about them when they go to town, but they don’t always go to town with their mother. 

They sit in the tree for a while. The sun won’t set for a while, but the sky is pinking up. A few birds crest in the clouds. 

“I wish we could fly away. You, me, and mother. Fly away to somewhere nice.”

“That’d be cool. Flying would be cool.”

Vex sighs, “Yeah, it’d super cool.” She dreams of flying.

She waits for the question she feels building up in her brother. 

Vax doesn’t make her wait for long. 

“So, what’d those shit heads say about your ears?”

Vex reaches up and tucks her hair back. “They said they were weird. Long and pointy, like a monster. They said we were drows. That mama made a pact with them to have us. They called her a harlot.” Vex whispers this last word like it’d curse them if said too loud. 

If Vax hadn’t already vowed to hurt these shit heads he’d vow it now. He tucks his hair behind his ears too and tugs at his sister’s ear. Vex turns and glares at him. 

“They’re fucking shitbags. Mom would never! And we’re not drows, we're normal half elves. Plus, if your ears are weird, then my ears are weird.”

Vex snorts, it’s a bit snotty and she wipes it on her brother’s arm to his disgust. “Your ears _are_ weird.” 

Vax grins. He tugs on her ear again. “Yeah, well… your face is weird. ” He’s silent for a couple seconds and then he shrugs. He pokes at her ears and pulls at his own, looking to the side as if he’s trying to look at them. “They’re not even that pointy. Mine are pointier. Yours are pretty stubby, actually.” 

“They are not!” Vex laughs, her eyes watering. 

“You know, I think they kinda are, Stubby.”

“Don’t call me that, you dick!” She pushes him, making sure to grip his shirt so he doesn’t tumble off the branch. She never wants to lose Vax. She doesn’t know what’d she do without him. 

Vax presses a wet finger into her ear making Vex yell. She grabs a handful of leaves and shoves it into his face. 

By the time they get home the sun is setting. Their mother looks at their dirt streak faces and the small twigs in their hair and sighs, telling them to wash up for dinner. Just before they sit down to eat, she hold Vex’s face gently and swipes her thumb under Vex’s eyes. Tucking Vex’s hair behind her ear, her mother’s fingers gentle trace the shell, and she kisses Vex’s forehead. She does the same to Vax as he sits down at their small table. 

“I love you both, my darlings.”

Vax has a mouthful of food, but he grins, bright and open and mumbles the same back to their mother. Vex wraps her arms around her mother for a beat longer than she usually does. Vex never wants to be away from her mother or Vax, the only two people in the world she loves with her whole heart and the only two people who have shown her they love her back.

“Hey, that’s mine!” She catches her brother trying to sneak her bread onto his plate and rushes over, elbowing him out of the way. 

It's one of their last days together. 

\- 

 

They don’t want to leave Byroden. 

Their mother doesn’t want them away from her. 

The choice is taken away from all of them. 

Slydor Vessar is a tall, imposing figure who shows up at their mother’s door. He looks like them, or more to the point, they look like him. They have his ears and nose and their hair falls the same way over their ears and shoulder. Up until this point neither Vex nor Vax had thought too much about who their father was outside the fact he must be out there somewhere and that he was an elf. Their mother never lied to them about him, but she also didn’t say much. _He gave me you_ , she always said, _that’s the best thing that he could have ever done_.

He comes to take them away. 

The reason he comes for them is political. He’s in need of heirs. They’re the only ones he has and so they need to come with him and learn the way of their— _his_ people. 

“What about mother?” Vex asks, one hand clenched tight in her mother's, the other twisted in her skirt. 

Next to his sister, Vax sets his jaw. “I don’t want to go without mother.”

Syldor looks at them both for the first time since he showed up. “Your mother will not be coming with us. She cannot.”

As both twins open their mouths to protest this, their mother crouches down and cups their faces, framing them in her hands. “It’ll be okay, darlings. It’ll only be for a little while. And it’d be good for you to learn about your father’s side of the family.” She looks over her shoulder at Syldor, her eyes shining with something like sadness and anger all at once. “You’ll learn so much and grow so big, and then you’ll come back and tell me everything. It’ll be an adventure.”

“But mother!” They both say at once. 

“Listen to your mother,” comes from Syldor. They ignore him. 

Their mother kisses their foreheads and thumbs at their cheeks. “This is a good thing, sweetlings. And I’ll always be here, waiting for you both. I promise.”

“We leave in the morning,” Syldor says and leaves their house. “Be ready at dawn.”

When morning comes, their mother gets them ready. Their meagre belongings fit in one pack that Vax has over his shoulder. Vex is wrapped in an old shawl of their mother. Their braids are neat.

Syldor arrives just after breakfast, and tugs them away from their mother’s arms saying they need to be off. He doesn’t look back as he has one of his attendants tug them along. Immediately, both twins hate him because of this. What’s worse, in their shared opinion, though it’s something they’ll never say out loud, is that they want him to love them. 

They learn quite quickly that’s pretty much impossible. 

\- 

Syngorn is beautiful. At eight years old it dazzles them; it’s so different from everything they’ve seen before.

It’s lush and so _so_ green. Trees surround it, become it, encapsulate it. Their father’s— _Syldor’s_ home is right smack dab in the most beautiful part of the city, which is saying a lot. 

The first night is terrible. They’re given separate rooms. They’ve never slept apart since they’ve been born. Vax tries to sleep, but the bed's too big and it’s too soft and he _can’t hear_ Vex. The last is the worst of it. 

Their father’s home is large and has a back garden. Vex’s room is right next to his and overlooks the garden, large trees litter it. His father’s room is somewhere else in the house, they were not shown it during the quick tour they were given. Hugging his knees, Vax eyes the window of the room and bites his lip. The door is right _there_ , but someone could hear him. He swallows and makes his way to the window. The latch gives easily. It doesn’t look like Syldor thought about locking windows and doors. And why would he, it’s not like you’re prisoners, Vax thinks to himself. Too bad it doesn’t feel that way. 

Pushing the window open, Vax sets his jaw and climbs. There’s no balcony but with a quick look out the window, he notes Vex’s window is not that far away. Grabbing the edge of the window with one hand, he leans as far as he can and knocks on the other window. 

Nothing happens. 

Vax grunts, scooting closer to the window. The ledge doesn’t give him a lot of room to work with, but he grits his teeth and curls his toes on it and knocks again. 

“Come on, Stubby, come on,” he whispers, hoping in vain that his sister hears him. 

He waits a breath, his toes are cramping. 

The window opens and the all too familiar face of his sister peaks out. 

“Wh—Vax!”

“Shhhhh, Vex’ahlia!” He wiggles his hand. 

Her hands grab at him and pull. His feet drop from under him but he pushes off the wall at the last second and lets go of his grip on his window ledge and reaches out to grab his sister’s wrist. 

It takes them a second, but together they manage to pull him into her room. 

They fall to the floor by the window with an _oof!_

“Vax’ildan, what are you doing!?” Vex scrambles up, kneeling by him as he leans against the wall. She reaches up and closes the window. 

He smiles. “That was awesome!” 

He chokes out the words, a little out of breath.

Vex hits him the arm, “Why do you have to be so stupid!” Her voice cracks a little, but he doesn’t mention it. 

Vax pulls her closer and hugs her. “You okay, Stubbs?”

She hugs him back and settles on the floor next to him. His arms settle around her shoulders, hers settle around his waist. Her head drops on his shoulder. “I’m fine.”

“Good, me too,” he says, nudging his head with hers. “So should I go back to my room?”

He says it in the hope she’ll say no. Vex always tries to keep her feelings small while Vax tries to keep his in check. Back home when she had nightmares, she’d wake him up by kicking at him, curl up and not say a thing until he’d tug them to their mother’s bed. Also, as cool as it was, he really doesn’t want to climb across the windows again. 

Vex’s other arm latches onto his, “No! Stay. You’re here already.”

“Okay, Vex’ahlia.”

They sit huddled together quiet for a while until Vex nudges him. “Come on, brother.” She tugs him up towards the bed and as soon as they hit it, they curl up the way they’ve done all their lives and fall asleep instantly. 

\- 

It only gets worse after that night. 

Their father doesn’t hurt them, or at least doesn’t hurt them physically, but they both quickly learn what is to be unwanted and unloved. It’s a hard lesson to learn. It’s one of the few they’ll never fully forget. 

The first time another elven child calls Vex’s ears stubby and “half-breed mistake” Vax ends up spending five days locked away in his room nursing a black eye, split cheek, and a broken wrist. Vex comes out of that interaction with a broken lip and some bruises across her arms. So much for elves being more refined. 

“You fucking call my sister a mistake one more time, and I’ll show you what this half-breed can do!” Vax leaps towards the other child, fists out, and fury in his eyes. Everything is blur of hands and legs and she can hear Vax grunt as the kid hits him.

Vex sees the rest of the group of kids move towards her brother and she doesn’t think, only acts. She's been carrying her new bow and quiver and Vex doesn’t think as she notches it. She's only had two lessons so far but she likes it. She likes it a lot. 

Her aim isn’t great but it catches one of the kids advancing on Vax in the shoulder. It helps her brother land a blow. He readies another. 

“Brother, let’s go!”

Vax looks up and over his shoulder, his eyes going wide at the bow in her hand, then nods, pushing away ready to move. As she makes sure her brother is okay, Vex doesn’t notice one of the other kids as they tackle her. 

She hits the ground hard, barely catching herself. She drops the bow in surprise. It breaks under the kid’s feet. 

Vax smashes into the child that just toppled her and pushes him out of the way. He grabs at Vex’s hand and pulls. Vex yells at him to duck and beans the one of the other kids advancing behind Vax with the broken edge of her bow. 

They scramble up and start running. They hear the following footsteps of the group of children around them. So much for elves being civilised. They’re a bunch of shits. 

It takes them a couple streets to find a tree they can easily clamber up and get away from the following herd of kiddie assholes. Vex and Vax reach out at the same time and cover each other’s mouths with their hands, pushing into the shade of the tree. They stay there for about ten minutes before they start moving again, bursting out in laughter at their escape, using the trees and landscape of the city to head back to the house.

By the time they get home their father is waiting and from the look in his eyes he already knows what happened. They don’t even get a chance to explain before he sends Vax to his room without dinner, telling him to stay there until further notice. He shakes his head at Vex, muttering disappointments under his breath. Her eyes burn as she watches her father retreat to his study. 

That night Vex steals in to Vax’s room with some food she snuck from the kitchens and sits on his bed as she watches him eat with one hand. She starts wrapping the other one. His black eye looks terrible, his cheek is very bruised. Vex looks a little better, one of the servants in the house took pity on her and gave her some healing salve. Vex used only a little of it, saving the rest for her brother. 

“Does it hurt,” she whispers, knowing the answer.

Around a mouthful of food, Vax mumbles. “Nobody gets to call you Stubby but me.” There’s still a spark of anger in his eyes. Vex doesn’t think she ever sees it go fully away after that day.

She laughs, because she knows this is him trying to make her feel better about this whole terrible day. “I love you, brother.” Finishing wrapping his wrist, she leans over and kisses his cheek. He winces but accepts it. 

“I love you too, Stubby.” He tugs on one of her ears, making her smile at word that hurt her so deeply earlier.

In the end, nothing in Syngorn is ever kind to them, but they try to make the best of it. 

-

The only good thing their father has done for them is allow them to write to their mother. It lasts only a few months. They send letters every week until their father makes a passing comment that have Vex’s eyes burning and had Vax breaking his knuckles against a wall. The last letter lets their mother know they’re healthy and happy (the latter is lie, but one they keep telling her because they don’t want to break her heart) and they’re together. They tell her they’re planning to visit soon. 

They only hear back from their mother a few times, so they only hope their letters get to her.

They never visit. 

-

“Why did he even bring us here if he doesn’t give two shits about us?” Vax grumbles as he practices with his daggers. It’s an old argument between them.

Vex notches her arrow and aims for the target they’ve marked on a tree. “You know perfectly well why.” Their father is still unmarried, still childless, save them. It’s enough for him to raise them in his name, it’s not enough for him to love them. Not enough for him to protect them from the whispers that follow them in the city.

They both aim and release their weapons at the same time. Both hit the mark. Not perfectly centre, but close.

“Ha! Mine’s closer!” Vex brags, pulling another arrow out of the quiver next to her. 

Before she can even aim it, Vax has thrown another dagger. It gets closer than her arrow. 

“Not that close, dear sister,” he says, poking at her side. 

“Ugh, shut up!” She shoves at him, dropping her bow. He shoves back. They fall into fight stances pretty quickly and spend the next few minutes sparring with each other. Most elves use range weapons, but Vax wanted to learn how to fight one to one, and Vex wasn’t about to let him be better than her at throwing a punch. They might not be strong but they are scrappy.

The saving grace of this whole situation has been learning to protect themselves. They each have their preferred subjects and specialities. Vax falls asleep in all the history and language classes, while Vex could care less for swords and daggers. But another lesson they learned quickly in Syngorn: they can only rely on each other. 

“Vax’ildan! Vex’ahlia!”

Immediately they stop, dropping their arms as they turn stiffly towards the voice. 

Their father looks at them like he always looks at them, with nothing in eyes. Vex sees him eye their weapons and their scuffed up clothes and hair. 

“Father,” they say as one. Vex immediately lifts her hands to her hair and tries to make it presentable again.

“What have I told you about roughhousing in the house? You are the children of a noble of Syngorn, not a couple of barbarians. Now, stop this and get cleaned up.”

Vex sees Vax’s hand curl into fist. She touches his wrist lightly. They’re so close, nobody else notices. 

Vax eyes her. 

Together they say, “Yes, father.”

They’ve been counting the days until they can get away. 

-

Vex dreams of flying away, flying home, her brother at her heels.

Vax dreams of his mother and sister by a warm fire, safe and protected. 

\- 

When they leave Syngorn they’re fifteen, almost sixteen. They’ve wanted to leave before but are smart enough to know surviving would have been difficult at the very least. 

The night they leave they climb out their window and down the side of the house. They both look at each other as they do, thinking back to that first night when that window was the biggest obstacle in their lives. As soon as their feet touch the ground outside their father’s house, they run. 

They don’t look back. Why would they? There’s nothing there for them.

-

Three days from Syngorn, they stop running and sigh. It’s one of relief and of a strange sorrow. Syngorn was a shit hole. Beautiful, but a shit hole. They won’t miss it, but deep inside in a place neither of them want to acknowledge they wish for a brief second they had been loved there, even if was only by one person. 

Vex rests her head against a tree and picks up some feathers from the ground. She still dreams of flying. 

Next to her, Vax rolls his stiff shoulders. He grabs a couple of the feathers and stick them in her hair. She bats his hand away, and most of the feathers fall. 

“We should go home.”

“We should.”

“We should probably also eat.”

“You’re a genius, brother.” She shakes the rest of the feathers out and pockets them. 

They go find some food in the first village they pass. It’s in the middle of realising they don’t have enough money for the two of them that they look at each other, nod, and with one wink and one well placed foot cause a tavern brawl. They don’t pay for their meal and make it out relatively unharmed. In Syngorn they both learned how handy it was to become part of the shadows. Being unseen means nobody sees when you hurt so much you can’t even cry. That still doesn’t mean they don’t know how to take a punch.

Vex has a black eye, Vax a broken lip and nose. 

Outside training and scrapes as kids, it’s the first real injuries they ever receive. Vex pokes at her eye; the pain makes her a little alive. Vax licks at the blood pooling on his lip. The cut looks pretty badass. She tells him that.

“I _am_ a badass.”

Vex snorts. 

“Maybe we should get some money first.” Vax pokes at his nose and winces. Vex shoos him away and presses her thumbs against her brother’s nose and puts it back in place. 

At his yelp, she grins. “Still a genius, brother.”

His teeth are bloody when he smiles back at her. They have the same smile. Their mother’s smile. “Just remember who the brains of the operation is, sister.” 

“Don’t be a dick.”

-

Going home is more of an idea than a plan. They miss their mother but it’s been so long the memory of her begins to feel more and more like a dream. In a way that’s what puts them off from going home right away. Their mother is still untainted by the truth that growing older brings. Simply put, they’re afraid of the same thing, something they had never considered before regarding their mother, but her lack of letters, and their time with their father has twisted in them:

What if she doesn’t love them the same way anymore? What if all the memories they have of her are better than the reality?

So they roam across the Verdant Expanse and explore the Stormcrest Mountains for some weeks looking for adventure or something like it. Surprisingly, it wears on them. The thrill of adventure is harder to come by than they thought and the world is even more unkind than Sygorn was. 

The night they decide to head back home they’ve watched a mother pick up and cuddle her child after she tripped on the cobblestones of the village square. The mother had dark hair like their own mother, the child must have been around eight. They had looked at each other and both had known where they wanted to be in that moment.

It takes them months to get near home. They’ve never travelled alone before and it’s not as easy as the stories make it seem. For all their half-elfness and supposed amazing sense of direction they get lost a couple times. One wrong turn here, one misread town there. They try to steal a map but they get caught and it’s not pretty. They steal a lot of other things when they have to, mostly food, but sometimes clothes. 

A lot happens they don’t want to think about during that time. And they’re never more grateful to have each other than during that time either. 

On the road, they quickly learn that it’s better to pass Vex’ahlia as a boy as long as they can. Even back in Syngorn many of the noble families with sons and many without would look at Vex’ahlia with a hunger in them that caused Vax to bristle. He hated it even more when it was clear his father saw the same looks his _friends_ gave his daughter and would do nothing, just look intrigued like suddenly there was purpose to Vex’ahlia. Vax is sure Vex’ahlia saw the same looks, but she always played them off. Sometimes Vax is not sure if he hates his father more for looking at Vex as political currency or if it’s because of him Vex had to learn to fend off the advances of unwanted men and women before they were even thirteen. (So did he, but it happened with Vex more.) Back in Syngorn, Vax punched many a fuckwads who tried to get under his sister’s skirt without her permission when she wasn’t punching them herself. He’d always be told off after, but it was always worth it. 

However, dressing Vex as boy doesn’t always help. Some people want pretty boys as much as they want pretty girls, and even worse some people want pretty siblings who looks very much alike. Vex has also punched many a fuckwad who has tried to get into Vax’s pants without his permission. Considering they’re not very strong, the punches don’t always do the damage they wished they’d do. This is why both of them like pointy things. 

They earn a lot scars on their journey home. Some they’re very proud of, some they rather not think about every again.

Scars that fall under either list:

\- The one on Vex’s thigh that got a little infected and Vax had to cut away at his sister’s skin, making him wish he could take all her pain. 

\- The one on Vax’s shoulder that took Vex a whole hour to stitch up because her hands were shaking so much and there was so much blood. So much blood. 

\- The three that look like claw marks across Vex’s shoulder.

\- The slash on Vax’s hipbone that almost reaches his navel.

\- Matching burns on their hands and knees that they got lucky with because they had a couple healing potions left.

\- The one of Vex’s forearm.

\- The ones on Vax’s ribs.

They’ll gain more, but they make it back home. 

Before they reach Broyden they buy a beautiful shawl they spend their last of their gold on for their mother. Vex is usually very frugal with their money, willing to steal more than buy, not that Vax minds, but their mother didn’t raise them to be thieves and she loves the colour blue. 

-

The shock of their mother’s death numbs them for longer than they care to admit. 

They burn the shawl.

They can’t bare to look at each other for days.

Vex finds a couple of blue feathers. Vax tucks them into her hair by her braid.

-

Something in them petrified that day in Broyden. 

For all disdain they suffered in Syngorn, the horrors they saw on the road, it was the ash of their home that stole that last bit of their innocence. After that, their goal became simple: survive. By any means. 

Vex doesn’t like to think on it, but for a while she was scared for Vax and sometimes of him. He’d never admit it of himself, but Vax was always the more outwardly emotional of the two. A mama’s boy. Always clutching at their mother’s skirt demanding her attention and time. 

The loss of their mother hit them both hard and terribly, but where she found some sort of solace in learning everything she could about dragons and how to kill them, Vax found his solace in the shadows and the hunt. But Vex quickly learns shadows aren’t always handy places to hide. They eat you up if you're not careful. Vex tries to avoid shadows, not because of that, not because of that at all. She knows how easily she could lose herself in her shadows if she lets herself. She could shroud herself in them and wear them like a cloak. She won’t. 

She won’t allow herself to hide. But more than that, there has to be someone to pull Vax out of them. Vex can’t allow the shadows to become her brother’s home, not matter how much comfort they seem to provide. 

Her brother would never hurt her, of course not, a preposterous thought, but his eyes grow so much darker and there is a distance in his gaze that truly frightens her. She could bear a lot of terrible things, but the loss of her brother’s soul could not be one of them. After all, her soul is tethered to his. (They don’t know how true this is yet.)

-

“You don’t need to sneak in here, you know that right?”

“Fuck, Vex! Don’t do that!” Vax stumbles into the cave they’re sleeping in for the night. 

Vex is across the cave, huddled by the small fire they built, their one blanket wrapped around her shoulders. He sees her knobby knees pressed under her chin. It’s winter and soon they’ll have to make the decision of moving south or spending too much money on a night in an inn to stay warm. 

“Well, then don’t fucking sneak in here like a thief trying to steal my shit.”

“I _am_ a thief.” Vax laughs, hobbling closer to her. His ankle is fucked up, but thankfully not broken. At least he got enough gold tonight that it’ll be okay that he doesn’t have to back into the town tomorrow night. The firelight barely lights the cave, but it along with his Darkvision allows him a clear view at his sister's glare. He sighs. 

“It’s fine.”

“You’re limping!” Vex whispers, angry. 

Vax rolls his eyes, groaning when he goes to sit down by her. His shoulder twinges a little too. His landings are still rough. The wet ground did not help. 

He drops the bag of gold in on sister’s knees. Vex is still glaring at him, but her eyes drop down to the bag immediately. She pulls her hands from under the blanket and pulls the bag open. She bounces it in her hands for a couple seconds. Vax grabs the edge of the blanket and scoots close to her, pulling the blanket over both of them. Vex is warmer than he is right now, and he feels her shiver as his cold and slightly damp side presses against her. 

“Fuck, you’re cold,” she complains, and drops the bag between them, grabbing one of his hands between hers. 

“It started to rain as I was leaving.”

Vex grumbles. 

“I was fine, sister.” Vax tugs her closer, mostly because he’s cold, but he knows Vex worries. 

“I don’t like it when you go out on jobs alone. You’re terribly reckless.” 

Vax knows. Just like he hates when Vex goes off on her own. It’s become more necessary nowadays. Vax is sneakier and faster on his own. As much as he prefers to have Vex around for look out, it’s also safer in case he gets caught. Someone needs to break him out, after all. 

“Now, sister, no need to be mean.”

“You came back limping.”

Vax sighs and leans on the rock face behind them. His back twinges, his ankle is throbbing. Gods, he misses having a bed sometimes. 

“The rain made the ground slippery. I fucked up my landing,” he says, dropping his head against Vex’s. Vex shifts a bit to get more comfortable and settles against him. She tugs on his other hand, switching her hold. Vax bumps his head against hers. “Still got the gold. Your intel was perfect.”

He doesn’t have to look at his sister’s face to know she’s smiling. He can feel it as she bumps her shoulder against his and reaches down to pat the bag. 

“Of course it was. Remember who the brains is.”

“Isn’t that me, dear sister?” He says, tired, and pulls on her braid.

Vex laughs. “Of course, dear brother.”

They huddle together. Vex stokes the fire a bit more and they settle in for the night, listening to the soft rain outside the cave. As Vax’s eyes drop, his ankle still throbbing, he hears his sister’s soft whisper. 

“You’re okay, though? Right?”

She sounds so young and he thinks about the moment he jumped and his ankle slipped on the roof and the tumble down the side of the building. He thinks about how for a brief moment he thought he was going to die and his first thought was: I can’t leave Vex alone. He remembers the moment on the ground as the lights came on the building and he gritted his teeth and pushed himself up. The run back had been hard, especially with his ankle, and being chased. He got lucky two alleys into the chase. Somebody was trying to rob someone else and Vax used them as a means of distraction to get away. 

He doesn’t want to remember how easily that man used the dagger and how much blood coated the alley. He doesn’t want to think about how his thought had been: I need to learn to do that. He doesn’t want to remember how ten-seconds later he did. Clumsily, but he still did it. His mother didn’t raise him to be thief. Or a killer. Or anything he is anymore. His hands shook all the way back into the forest. He made sure they were as steady as possible when he walked in. The rain washed away the blood.

Keeping his eyes closed, he pats his sister’s hand. His hands are a lot warmer now. 

“Just give me a couple days and I’ll be better than ever, sister. Next time I’ll get us enough for a room, just you see.” Now that he knows he can do it. That he can slip his dagger between someone’s ribs, he’s pretty sure he can do it again. No, he knows he can do it again, if it means it protects him and Vex.

He feels her nod and pull the blanket tighter around them. She says something, but Vax misses it, he’s so tired. He’s pretty sure he knows what it was anyway. 

-

Sometimes Vex gets tired of waiting when Vax is gone for too long. They both have been honing their skills, her in the forest, his in the dark alleys of the town and cities they pass through. She understands he has to be. She understands that should anything ever go wrong, he counts on her to be ready to help him. “Or leave me, Vex’ahlia,” he said once when they were setting up their system. She answered back with a resounding: “fuck you, brother.” 

Still, he has to go in the towns alone a lot of the time, which means she’s hanging out alone a lot of the time in their camp. When they have books she reads them, once, twice, twenty times until she drops of them in another town, by a school, by a food stand, by a kid who looks like they need it before she steals a couple new ones. 

She’s thinking about how it sucks that she didn’t get a new book last time they were in town. She’s so fucking bored now. 

The snap of the twigs catch her slightly by surprise because of that. 

Notching her arrow, she turns to where two people stroll out of the brush. It’s a man and woman. Vex relaxes her shoulders but only a little. 

“What do you want?”

The man puts up his hands. “Woah, there. No harm here!”

The woman doesn’t, but she smiles. “Hey, hey, sorry, we didn’t mean to startle you. We just saw your fire and wondered if you’d be so kind to let us join you.”

Vex wants to say no. She really does, but she’s so fucking bored and lonely. It’s kinda sad how quickly she misses her brother when he’s gone from her sight for more than a few hours. Six hours has been their record. Plus, they look okay. Their clothes are as clean as you can get traipsing through the forest, but they look to be in good condition. Their hair is neat. They don’t have any weapons except a couple knives at their sides. The woman is still smiling at her. 

“Sure…” she says, still wary, but she’s also thinking about how nice it would have been to join someone with a fire those first weeks after they left their father’s. They had trusted so few people. Nothing much has changed, but Vex thinks about how it’d have been nice to believe there were better people in the world than the ones they’ve come around. 

The couple sits. Their names are Lina and Gael.

They thank her and stretch out their feet. Vex bites back a smile when she notices the man wiggles his toes in his boots. They start talking about their day and how they ended up in the forest by her camp site. 

Travellers, salesmen. Heading back to town after a day on the road, but they took a wrong path and well, here we are. Aren’t we lucky we found you?

Vex smiles, her bow by her side. “I’m happy to be of help. When my brother gets back he can tell you the best way to get back to town. I’d guide you myself but it’s my night to stay on watch.”

“Oh, your brother?”

“Yeah, he went to get some more supplies. Should be back soon.” Vex eyes the sun. She’s lying of course, Vax will be back at least by sunset and that’s hours away yet, but they don’t need to know that. She’s nice, not stupid. 

“That’s nice. You two travelling together.”

“Yeah, we like it.”

“Going home soon?”

“Something like that.”

Gael laughs. “No need to be coy, lass. Just chatter.”

Vex twirls the ties of her shirt around her finger, pulling it tight and the loose, and then repeating the action. She watches as her skin turns white when she lets go and then returns to it’s soft tan state seconds later. 

Gael is a talker, he’s a good storyteller and Lina is quick and witty with cutting comments that makes Vex warm up to her. They chit chat for about an hour before she moves to offer them a warm tea when the side of her head bursts into a flash of pain--

MOTHERFUCKER. 

She spins as fast as she can, her head and eyesight a flash of white and strikes out at whichever of these two assholes is closest. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thinks to herself even as her fist connects. 

There’s a groan of pain. It sound like a man. It doesn’t matter. Vex doesn’t fucking give a shit who it is, she’s gonna kill them. She swings again, blinking. Her vision is double and then it triples when someone smacks her leg with a stick. Vex stumbles. She tries to remember how close her bow is. She won’t be able to fire it, but she might be able to repurpose it as a staff—

A pair of hands grabs at her hair and pulls. Lina. Her smile is still in place, but wider. Happier. Fucking smug. Vex claws at her. She kicks her legs out but a thick pair of arms wrap around her — the man — and she’s lifted off the ground. Fuck fuck fuck. She can’t get a good angle and her hands are being bound by Lina.

“Let me go!”

“Don’t hurt her,” Lina says, “they’ll want her less if she’s banged up.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

Lina cups Vex’s face. “You and your pretty clothes are quality material, little girl. It’s shame your brother wasn’t around too. Pairs are always nice.”

“You fuckers, I will fucking kill you!” She yells, still trying to claw and kick at whoever is closest but her head is killing her and there’s the sound of a something opening. Lina put a thin glass tube with some clear liquid under Vex’s nose. She tries tilting her head back, but the man is still holding her, pulling something over her face. Vex tries to bite at them. Then next thing she knows is a creeping darkness more frightening than anything else she’s ever experienced. Why was she so damn stupid, why did she let them sit?

_Vax. I love you._

They don’t have a magic twin bond. He won’t know she’s in trouble until he comes back and that won’t be for hours. 

-

When Vax returns to the camp and doesn’t see Vex, just the remains of their fire, he doesn’t freak out. He doesn’t. Vex is a grown woman she could have gone for a walk. When she’s not back for a couple hours, yeah, that’s when he freaks the fuck out and starts searching the area around their camp. She couldn’t have gotten far… right?

_Vex, where the fuck are you!_

-

Everything hurting is the first thing she becomes aware of as she wakes up. The second thing is everything else. Vex scrambles up and tries to get her bearing even as her head still throbs. The third thing she notices is that she’s in a cage. Her head hits the top of it as she sits up. It’s not much bigger than she is. 

Fear is the first thing she feels and the first thing she pushes away. She can’t be fucking afraid. She’s gotta get the fuck out. There’s no time for fear there. 

She thinks of Syngorn, the worst place she can think of and remembers how she survived there. Vax. She had Vax, but that’s not an option now. She’ll get back to Vax, she promises herself. She won’t leave her twin alone. After Vax, she had her wits, and her smarts, and as much as she hates to admit, her father’s poker face and countenance. She can get out here. She just needs to put the picture together and figure out how to twist it for her benefit. 

A quick glance around the camp shows it’s currently abandoned save the cages. Not all them are full, but enough are to make some things clear for her. Poachers. There are animals in the other cages in various stages of death. There are hides, bones, heads. Terrible trophies of hunts done for no other reason than death and sport. Vex knows she’s no angel. She knows she and brother have taken lives, but they kill to survive not for this sick game that surrounds her. There’s a bear bleeding out not ten paces away from her. She can’t wait for these assholes to come back so she can gut them the same ways they’ve done to this poor thing. 

Her hands curl so tightly on the bars of her cage her nails dig into her palm. 

She takes a deep breath. She needs to focus. 

The sun is low in the sky, but there's still a bit light out. Sunset will be soon. Vax will be back to their camp soon and he’ll be worried if she’s not there before moon rise. 

Closing her eyes, she wills herself to not think of that right now. Vax isn’t here. It’s only her and she needs to get the fuck away. 

First things first, she needs to get out of this cage. 

The lock on it looks rusty, but it works. She can’t pick it, but the hinges are rusted. Shaking the side of it, Vex sees her way out. She angles herself and listens for any sounds in the camp. There’s only the pained moaning of the bear. Swallowing hard, Vex prays for every inch of strength in her body and kicks at the hinges. It creaks but nothing happens. Vex grips the cages’ bars harder, presses her back into the metal, and lifts her knees up.

She kicks and kicks and the hinges pop away. 

“Fuck, yesssss,” Vex hisses and crawls forward. The cage door pushes away from its hinges and Vex starts to crawl forward except that’s when she hears someone coming. The bear moans again. 

Pulling the door back, she scrambles into a prone position and pretends to be still passed out. 

The footsteps get closer. 

She hears Gael and Lina’s voices, if those was even their names. They’re talking about her, about selling her. Bile rises in Vex’s throat but she tries to keep as casually still as possible. 

“It’s a shame we couldn’t get her brother. But if we play our cards right, he’ll be waiting for her tomorrow. If they’re as close as they seem then he won’t leave her behind. We might get lucky, babe.” The woman is saying and if she hadn’t already been planning to kill them that would have convinced her. 

She stays faking sleep until their voices died away. The bear moans and Gael complains about it. Vex hears the kick and it makes her flinch. 

Finally when it’s quiet, the only sounds in the camp snoring and the bear’s low moans, Vex carefully sits up. She shifts her weight to the edges of the door and leans on it, pushing as quietly as she can. 

It pops open with a creak, making her wince. She looks towards the bedroll and closes her eyes, pushing again. The ground is soft and damp and masks the give of the cage door. From the other cage the bear whimpers. 

That’s when it starts to rain and Vex is glad of it. Her tears are hot and angry on her face, so different for the coolness of the rain, but just as strong. As stealthy as she can she makes her way over to the bedrolls. Lina Whatever Her Name is on her side, Gael Whoever The Fuck on his back. They have their daggers by their sides. Vex notices her bow by one of their packs. She grabs one of her arrows. 

She thinks of Vax alone back at their camp, their mother alone when the dragon came. Of herself alone, right now. 

She grabs the dagger and kneels over Gael Whatever His Name’s body. 

Leaning over she whispers into his face, “Hey, buddy, hey.” 

His eyes pop open, slowly but alert. You learn to be alert on the road. They go wide when they see her. Vex winks. “Fuck you, asshole. You’re getting shit for me or my brother.” 

He doesn’t even get a chance to scream. 

Still it wakes Lina, who blinks and curses very creatively at her, before Vex spins and stabs her with the arrow. 

It all takes less than a minute, but it feels like a lifetime.

The rain is still falling hard and Vex’s head snaps up as the bear in the cage gives a pained moan. She swallows. She knows what she has to do. There’s no way to save the animal, its blood is still pooling at its side, darker and darker, and she’s got no skills to help it. 

Slowly, she makes her way to the bear’s cage and breaks the lock with the hilt of the dagger. It slips from her hand in the rain and she scrambles to pick it back up. They’re dead as fuck, their blood already washed from her hands by the rain, but she can still feel it. She’s not safe yet. 

The bear blinks at her and Vex sobs. She kneels by the bear’s face and buries her face in its fur weeping. 

“I’m so sorry, darling. I’m sorry!” 

The dagger slips easily into the bear’s neck. 

Vex remains by the bear's side for several more minutes. Her tears mix with the rain and blood seeping from the bear. She lets her sobs run out and then stands. 

The crescent moon is barely a light through the clouds and the rain has slowed. 

That’s when she hears it. 

The whimper. 

For a second she tenses up thinking it’s Lina or Gael, not really dead yet, coming for one last swipe at her, but their bodies are still cold and motionless by the campfire. The whimper comes again on the edges of the rain and wind. Vex slowly makes her way around the bear and oh gods, oh gods, what has she done. 

There’s a cub there, matted wet, and half hidden in its mother’s fur, but alive. 

Vex drops the dagger and screams. 

The cub looks up at her and whimpers loudly. 

Vex wipes at her face. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, little one. I’m didn’t—“ she kneels down and crawls towards the cub. The cub eyes her and shuffles back into its mother’s fur. Vex can’t help notice how little it is. It must have been just born. It makes her angry to think it was born in this camp, a prize to be sold to the highest bidder. She angles her hand forward and makes soothing sounds. 

“Come on sweetie, let’s get out of. Let’s go.” 

The cub tilts its face to her and sniffs at her hand. It nuzzles it and then licks it. Vex lets out a wet laugh of relief and gingerly moves forward to pick it up. 

It’s heavy as shit and her arms hurt, but she doesn’t let the cub go. She’ll have to figure out if it’s a boy or girl, she thinks, hefting it in her arms as she grabs her bow and quiver. 

She doesn’t look back at the camp for one-second as she heads back to her brother. The rain thins out as she heads back, the moon comes out from the clouds lighting her path. The cub licks at her face, erasing any last traces of tears and blood from her face. 

Vax is never going to believe her, Vex thinks as she walks, the cub’s weight already straining her arms, because she knows in this minute that it’s because she’ll never let him know how close they got to losing each other. 

As it is as soon as she gets ten paces near their camp, Vax is there, wrapping her up in his arms asking her where the fuck she was. She lies, tells him she got caught in the storm, tells him there was a mudslide. He pretends to believe her, but there’s a bear in her arms and: _what the fuck are you doing with a bear, sister?_ takes up the rest of their night.

-

The story of how Trinket came to them is one Vex keeps close to her heart. Vax is pretty sure he doesn’t know the whole story. (The Dagger. The Dagger. The Dagger.) Oh, he knows what Vex told him. He accepted what Vex told him. Still, that day when Vex came back with the bear cub in her arms it was the look in her eyes that had stopped all his forthcoming complaints about how they couldn’t possibly take care of a fucking wild animal. No matter how cute and cuddly the little shit was. 

The reason for this is that Vex is the better liar between them. Vex is the smarter one, too. These are just facts. 

But Vax knows his sister better than he knows himself and Vex is the one who has the kindest heart. His own heart has felt empty for anything save his sister since— Well, point is he usually knows when his sister is lying to him. Most of the time. He hopes.

That day there was something in the truth she told him that didn’t feel right, but the look in her eyes felt worse and the only time the stopped looking haunted was when she held the cub to her face. He wasn’t about to break his sister's heart and make her leave the animal behind. Plus, she did have a point when she said the cub would help keep them warmer at night. 

His sister tries to be practical in her love like that. It’s silly as shit, but whatever makes her feel better. 

Later, Vax will tell this as the story of how he became an uncle at the tender age of twenty. Vex will always elbow him and tell him he should be so lucky to have a son as wonderful as Trinket one day. (She’s not completely wrong.) He’s also a good addition to their family in the end. He, yep, she found out he’s a boy, keeps them a little extra warm with his furry body. Vax grumbles about it for a few weeks, he can’t help but notice how happy the bear makes his sister. 

Vex is more playful than she’s been since before Syngorn, and to be honest, so is he. If the loss of their mother threaten to break the last happy strand in their hearts, Trinket helps mend it. He gives them both something they’ve never had: a friend that isn’t either of them. Trinket lumbers by Vex, sleeps in the middle of their tent when he’s still small, his flank pressed against Vex, his paws pushing at Vax’s stomach. He eats their scraps (not that there are ever many), helps Vex hunt as he grows, and gives them a secondary purpose aside from just surviving: keeping him happy and alive. It’s kinda amazing how much it matters to have something in your life that’s not just about making it to the next day. Vex had forgotten that. 

One night as Trinket drops his fuzzy head on Vex’s lap and starts snoring, Vax smiles as his sister starts combing Trinket’s hair. Vex is a great mom, a great caregiver; she should be able to have a big house where she’s safe and happy, he thinks. He hopes that one day he’ll be able to see that. 

One day, Vex will look at Trinket and Vax, as they both wade in a river trying to fish, but mostly splash at each other and think how she might have saved Trinket that night, but in the end he might have saved them in his own way. 

And so goes their life, moving town to town, job to job, Trinket in tow, coffers usually low, but always together. They don’t think much about what’s next, because right now is hard enough. Vex still has nightmares about dragons and Vax dreams about an emptiness eating him up. When they wake up they see each other and for now that’s all that matters. 

\- 

It takes him a while to notice what’s happening because he’s got a job. It requires him to slink around the Kymal at all hours and only sees Vex late at night or early in the morning curled into Trinket. The season is changing and they both cuddle closer to the growing bear as the chill in the air gets stronger. 

He only catches her because he caught sight of her feathers from a rooftop across the tavern his target frequented. He’s surprised because Vex tends to spend most her time in the forest, practicing and perfecting her skills. His sister is a bit of a perfectionist, a leftover trait from their time in Syngorn, but don’t tell her that. However, he thinks little of it. She might wandered into town to get something. He might have thought about it more but his quarry left the tavern and he had to move. 

That night as he gets back to the camp, Vex is leaning against Trinket eating an apple. She asks about his day and before he can answer she tells him about how she spent the whole day learning new tracking techniques in the forest. 

Vax’s words halt in his mouth. Obviously, she doesn’t know he saw her, but that she’s pretending she didn’t go to town at all is very strange. And how he finds out she’s keeping a secret from him.

Which is fine. He’s kept his fair share in the last few years, but then one afternoon after Vex’ahlia brushes him off when he ask for her help with his next job, her eyes lying to him about where she was going. That’s when Vax decides to follow her. Vex is a good liar, better than him, and usually he lets her, but there was something in the line of her shoulders that picks him. It’s like she’s ashamed? And that just doesn’t make sense. Vex is the most confident person he knows. So he follows. He follows her down winding streets, across a couple rooftops, and when she reaches her destination he pauses. Huh, interesting.

He doesn’t enter the building just stares at it wondering why in the hell she kept this from him. 

He waits until she leaves.

Follows her back to their tent and hangs in the shadows for a couple hours before he makes his way towards her. 

Vex eyes him and he wonders if she knows he followed her. Neither say anything. 

This happens for a couple weeks while they’re staying near the town. Vax’s found himself a few more jobs that requires planning and some light stalking, burglary, one or two deaths, but every other day Vex goes into that building and lies to Vax about where she went. He comes up with reasons upon reasons as to why she’s in there, what she’s doing, and why she hasn’t told him. 

As their time by this town starts to end, Vax considers what to do. People are getting curiouser about rising levels pick pocking, the dead lord who apparently was smuggling suud via the orphanage, the missing gold goat statue, the missing goat, and the twins have always had a fair share of eyes that follow them. But Vex spends longer in the building the closer their time to leave approaches. One night he notices her pack is a bit heftier than before. 

Vax makes a plan. 

-

One morning, Vex eyes her brother. He’s being twitchy. Not subtle at all. “You know, I’ve known you’ve been following me for a week.”

“Ha! I’ve been following you for two weeks, Stubby,” Vax grins, tugging her braid. “Come on, now that you’re finally being honest with me, I can be honest with you!” She smacks his hand away. He grabs at it and pulls her down the road. Trinket lumbers behind them on growing bear paws. 

“Vax,” she sighs, “what are you doing?”

“Just _bear_ with me,” he says, reaching back to lift Trinket up and wiggle him. Trinket’s back paws dangle. It’s fucking cute. “Get it, bear?” 

He can’t hold Trinket up that long, her baby is growing fast, and neither twin will ever be known for their upper body strength. 

“Very funny, brother.” The eyeroll is implicit in her tone. 

He’s leading her down roads and alleys she’s already familiar with. Kymel isn’t that large, and they’ve been hanging around almost a month. Suddenly he stops by a grate in the ground and spread his hand wide. “Ta da!”

Vex looks between the grate and her brother, once, twice. “It’s happened. You’ve lost your mind… I always feared this day would come,” she continues as Vax rolls his eyes. “Now it’ll be me and Trinket all by ourselves.” 

“Hilarious, sister,” he says, and motions to the grate. “Help me with this. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

Vex is unsure, to say the least, but she trusts her brother more than she trusts herself. Together they lift the grate and make their down to the— it’s not quite a sewer but some sort of old storage hole. Vax clambers down first and together they left Trinket down. Vex huffs a laughs as she hears her brother stumble back under Trinket’s weight. 

“Is it big enough for him?”

“ _Yes_ , _sister._ I did make sure of that before, come on!”

Rolling her eyes, Vex jumps down. Vax curses as he jumps out of the way. Ha! 

“So, what are we doing down here?”

The room is small and (no pun intended!) _barely_ fits them and Trinket. It looks like it used to be a cellar of some sort. Probably used to house or move illegal contraband. After they move past the grate they climbed down, there’s a bit of a hallway. Not too long, but just out of sight from the grate. At the end of it there’s a door. A small door, maybe halfling sized. Eyeing it, Vex can tell that if Trinket was only just a little bit older and bigger there’d be no way he’d make it through there. There’s a bunch of boxes tumbled around it. It looks like they used to be filled with old bottles. Vax mentions they used to cover it up. 

“You’ll see,” he says, leading her turns her towards the door. He fiddles with the lock for a bit and then shoves it open. It’s heavy and a little loud and they both wince. Trinket whines. They both gently shush Trinket as they hurry through the door. “I found this place when I looking for Lord Asshole’s stash.” 

They’re in a small room now. Despite the halfling sized door, the room has high ceilings, tall enough that they can stand comfortably in it, and it’s wide enough that Trinket can move around it. There’s another door at the other end. There’s more boxes lining the walls. A few barrels. Vax tells her most are empty, the others apparently have old blankets and a couple of aged wine bottles. Nothing of interest really. Vex can’t help but wonder why this is such a big deal.

“Okay, so where are we now?”

“Under your library. This is its basement, but they don’t use this room or have forgotten it. That other door leads to it’s actual basement and storage. Some other drug dealer probably used this place.”

“VAX!”

“Well, you don’t seem to be done with whatever it is you’re doing if that giant book you failed to hide is anything to go by, and I know we try not to stay too long in any one place, but it looks like this is important to you and yeah… better than camping out in the woods, right? It’s almost winter.” Vax trails off, his shoulders getting closer and closer to his ears. Her brother is really the most terribly sweet person when he wants to be. She lunges forward and wraps him up in a hug. Immediately he hugs her back. “Hey, it’s no big deal.” 

Vex sniffles into his shoulder and shakes her head. “You don’t know what a big deal it is.” Pulling away, she holds his shoulder at arms length and swallows. “It’s a huge deal.”

He shrugs and she shakes her head again. He’s not going to ask, even though she suspects he’s got an inkling of what she’s doing, but he’s not asking, because she didn’t tell him what she was doing and they try to respect each other’s privacy and secrets. Once, not that long ago, he’d be pestering her and she’d be doing the same. Not knowing something about each other seemed inconceivable. Now, they’ve learned that sometimes it’s just a little bit necessary. It was hard thing to come to terms with. But this, this he should know. It matters to him as much as it does to her. “I’m learning about dragons. I’m studying how to kill dragons.”

Vax stills. His whole face shuts down as it always does when he thinks of mother and Vex digs her nails into his shoulder. The dark places of her brother’s soul have always threatened to swallow him, unlike her, but she will not lose him to them. Vax’s eyes snap to her. 

“Kill dragons?”

“Well, that’s the plan, isn’t it? Find that dragon and kill it?” She smirks, because sometimes she dreams of it. Hitting the dragon who burnt her mother in the heart and shattering every piece of it. 

Vax’s eyes glint dangerously at her smirk. Her brother is a very deadly man, sometimes she forgets. “Oh, yeah, that’s the plan alright.” 

“So we best know the ideal way to do it, darling. And this library is going to help me start figuring out how.”

Vax tugs her in for a quick hug. This time she feels Trinket bump into their legs. They’re lucky he’s small enough to stay in this room without being cramped. 

“You’re a fucking beast, and I love you,” Vax says, stepping back, giving Trinket an ear scratch. The glint in his eyes is softened. “And tonight you deserve some mead and chicken. I’ll be back soon with food, get to studying, you wonderful nerd!” He smacks a kiss on her cheek and bounces out of the room, locking it behind him. Vex looks at the other door, the one that leads up to the library. She smiles. Her brother is also a very kind man, sometimes she forgets that too.

They live under the library all winter. Vex learns everything she can. Vax almost gets arrested a couple times. Trinket grows almost too big to leave the room when it’s time for them to move on. But they do, they always move on. Home is roving location for them, all that matters is that they’re together. 

-

After Kymal, there’s no real direction once again. They hunt up leads on dragons for months, not hunting, not yet. Vex stalks and watches, learns. Vax shadows her. Trinket becomes a good a hunter and fighter as his mother. 

When they time comes and they need money they hire themselves out as hunters, mercenaries, thieves. Life continues on. Trinket grows, they do as well. They begin looking less and less alike while still looking exactly alike. It becomes their life. Surviving, raising Trinket, watching out for each other. 

It’s not bad, it’s not good, but they’re together and that’s what always mattered the most.

They continue on.

-

Stilben is grey in the spring, but warm. Heavy rain clouds hang in the sky with a sense of impatient waiting. The air is thick and warm, and makes them sweat at their joints and the base of their neck. Their hair feels dirty and damp strands stick to their skin. Trinket lumbers next to them, huge and uncomfortable in the humid air. Insects circle the air, somehow not bogged down by the oppressive heat. 

“I know, buddy, it’s super gross out. Let’s get ourselves a drink before we camp out, huh?” Vex says, scratching behind Trinket’s ear. He leans against her palm. 

Vax spits into the street and pulls his hair up in high ponytail. “Gods, please let’s get out of this fucking sweat factory. This town is the worst already.”

“I thought you were tired of sleeping on the ground, dear brother. I thought ‘let’s go into fucking town and sleep in some beds for once.’”

“Only because it’s too hot to sleep on Trinks, bear sweat is not nice.” He quips back, patting Trinket fondly on his back. “We should head back up north, this place looks like shit.” 

“Your sweat is not nice either, you know.”

Vax sighs, he’s too tired and sticky to defend himself and his sweat against Vex’s maternal instincts. 

“Tavern, please, sister? I need a fucking drink.” He slaps at the air where an insect flies too close to his liking. He catches it with his fist and tosses away from them. 

“Fine, whatever. Let’s get you a drink. Maybe you’ll meet a nice boy or girl to keep you entertain and stop annoying me.” Or at least the alcohol will cool them down enough that they won’t get on each other nerves as quickly. They’ve been travelling for so long and work has been scarce these last few months. Vex is also already tired of this town even if they did hear it’s a great place to get work. According to the talk from the smaller villages near by, much of Stilben is not on the up and up. Just what they need to relieve their tension and fill up their pockets.

Laughing, Vax wraps an arm around her shoulder, pouting when she shoves him off. “You know you’ll always be my favourite girl to annoy, Vex’ahlia.”

She rolls her eyes, but mutters. “I better be.” It’s not as much a joke as her tone implies. They walk for a few minutes when Vex eyes the a good sized tavern with some stables next to it. That’ll do for them and for Trinket. 

“Look, there, they have stables and,” she adds they get closer, “the music sounds pretty good.”

Vax looks over to where she’s nodding to. The Sunset Stride Tavern. He snorts. “Nice name, sounds like a fancy spa.”

“Do you even know what a spa is?”

“Hey, I know things!”

Vex laughs, tugging on his sleeve. “Come on, Trinket’s thirsty and I’m getting hungry. Plus, we might get lucky and just have to relieve some asshole from their gold.”

“Oh, sister, you know just what I like to hear,” Vax says, as they head towards the tavern. They leave Trinket outside by the few horses that are tied up. Trinket huffs and plops down by a bale of hay and starts lapping up the water they leave him with. 

As the twins slip inside, they are bombarded with the sounds from the band in the corner, lead by a gnome. They make note of the goliath in the corner, the biggest person in the tavern. There’s a scattering of humans, half elves, half orcs, a few Dragonborn, and halflings. Everyone looks well fed and jovial. The music is actually good. Vex makes note of the job boards in the back and nudges Vax. He nods and tilts his head towards the bar. 

The twins split. Vex to the notice board, Vax to to the bar. He passes a red headed half-elf with a large regal looking head piece strewn with flowers and considers freeing her of her coin, but a quick bump and apology he realises she’s got almost nothing on her of value and they try not to steal from the innocent. Across the room Vex bumps into the goliath who sneers at her as some of his drink spills. She winks and all is well. 

When they reconvene at one of the more secluded tables in the tavern Vax hands Vex her drink and she lets tells him of the jobs offered. 

“Well, what do you think, sister?”

“Why not? Can’t be any worse than the shit we’ve been doing lately.”

Vax gulps his drink. “I love your practical mind.”

When they take the job later and look around at their new partners, the twins shrug at each other. 

_We’ll be done with these losers in a week,_ they know the other is thinking even as Scanlan makes them laugh, Tiberius charms and confuses them, Vax keeps eyeing Keyleth’s red hair, and Grog plays with Trinket.

-

By the time Percy and Pike join the group they’ve stopped kidding themselves, but still there’s that fear that this, whatever this is, will only be temporary. 

And then it’s not.

It feels the opposite of temporary. 

It’s feels something like family.

It’s strange because for so long each other is the only family they’ve known. 

When the Keep is built the twins make sure their rooms are next to each other, and realise it’s the first time they’ve had a home in about ten years. They sit together on the wall as they over look Emon, a bottle of wine going between them, in awe of this place built for them. Of the people within it that stand by them. 

“Do you think this will last?” Vex asks, afraid of the answer and how much she wants the answer to be yes.

Vax looks over his shoulder at main part of the Keep. “I think if it doesn’t, we’ll be okay, but I think I really want it too.”

Vex takes a small sip of her drink and hands it over. “Yeah, me too. They’re not so bad, are they?”

“No they’re kinda okay.” 

They sit there for several minutes before they hear: 

“Are you two going to stay up there all fucking night? We leave for Kraghammer in the morning!”

“If you’re keeping watch, please remember we hired people to do that!”

“Wait, are we having a late night pow wow, because I can make us a campfire!”

“Will you all please kindly shut up, I am trying to get some work done!”

“Guys, come on, I’m tired. We’re all tired and we have a long journey ahead of us!”

“GO THE FUCK TO SLEEP.”

Looking at each other the twins burst out laughing. They pull each other up and together they head back to the weirdos they’ve decided to live with for now. Maybe it will last.

-

And so it keeps going. They keep growing and pushing forward. It’s a strange year that unfurls before them and with it so many things change and shift and grow.

The Keep falls, but somehow from it’s ashes they build better homes.

Separate ones, to their surprise.

 

_“This is home for you. And I’m planning to go with Kiki to Zephyr.”_

In the end, he’s the one putting it off. Keyleth, bless her heart, understands all too well and lets him until they can’t anymore. Her Aramente has long since been finished, but they’ve had things to take care off. Now, everything has settled down. Everyone seems to have settled down. Tary was helping Vex with her house, the bakery, and spending the rest of his time making Doty 2.0. Grog and Pike split their time between the Keep and Whitestone, with Whitestone remaining their home base. It’s a bit sad how the Keep was no longer their safe haven, but had it really been home since Tiberius had left? Since the dragons had come? 

They all know the answer.

Percy went back and forth for awhile too, as these were being rebuilt, but ultimately they all knew he only really called one place home. Keyleth has Zephra waiting for her. Vex and Vax were the two everyone was waiting for. Nobody said it, but whenever they spoke about going home, when Percy mentioned the future of Whitestone, when Keyleth mentioned Zephra waiting, there’d be aborted looks between the twins. 

But it was time. 

They both knew it was bound to happen. For the long haul this time. It wasn’t just going to be a visit before they got back to things again. They talked about it months ago. An hourglass had flipped over that night at dinner when Keyleth mentioned they’d have be in Zephra for the Solstice and today the final grains of sand falls. 

Vax stands in front of Vex, Percival, and Trinket. Kiki is by the tree waiting for him. All the goodbyes have been said save his and Vex’s. But how can they? They don’t know how to stay goodbye to each other. They’ve never had to before. 

Vax isn’t sure how this is supposed to go. 

The abstract of this day is nothing compared to the actuality. He didn’t know how much it would hurt. 

Vex stands in front him, Trinket next to her. Percy takes a step back as she steps forward. She places her hand on Trinket’s head. Her fingers curl in his fur. 

“Looks like here we are, brother,” she says, and Vax has never been more certain she’s the braver of the two. He’d never be able to say goodbye first. In the back of his mind he hears the flutter of feathers.

He smiles, it’s not his best. “Looks like it, sister.”

It’s awkward, this. Knowing he’s leaving his twin, it makes his actions twitchy, it makes his skin itch. He reaches up, fingers shaking, and tugs on her braid. Immediately her eyes water and Vax hates himself. He knows how much she hates to cry, especially in public. He pulls her closer. “Hey now, it’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. _You’ll be okay_. You’ve got land to lord over and Percival to make you all the arrows you want. No more worrying about me and all the stupid shit I do.”

Her arms curl tight around his waist. “Stupid… I never worry. You’re always fine. Lucky shit.” Her sniffles are buried in his shoulder.

He kisses her temple. “Yeah, I am. And so are you.”

“We _are_ very lucky,” he says, pulling back and giving her smirk. “Look at us, we got a princess and princeling here thinking we’re the hottest shits on earth. We got a cool as fuck Keep, a _castle_ , and some pretty awesome trinkets.” He looks over to his bear of a nephew and ruffles his fur, making Vex laugh. His sister’s face lights up when she laughs. She looks like their mother.

“Well, I am. I still don’t know what she sees in you.”

It’s Vax’s turn to laugh and behind him he hears Kiki sputter and try to defend him. Percy snorts and engages her in conversation. 

“Yeah, neither do I.”

Vex tilts her head back and looks him in the eyes. They’re just like his. Strange how much he already misses them. She gives him a serious look and pokes his cheek. “You’re one of the best, if not the best, men I know, brother. You’re… I couldn’t… I wouldn’t be here…” she swallows as he shushes her. She doesn’t need to say that, he’s never regretted that choice. The world is better having her in it. He tells her as much. 

She shakes her head. “Stop. I don’t want to cry.”

“Then don’t, you dummy.” He cups her cheek and gives her wink. “Hey, I love you, Stubby.”

She grins, eyes bright. Her thumb catches the corner of his eye and wipes. “I love you, too, you dick. Also, never do that again. It’s fucking weird.” 

Vax winks again. Vex pushes at him. 

Looking over his shoulder, he looks at the Sun Tree and sighs. It’s time. Next to the tree Keyleth and Percy wait for them. When he looks back at Vex he turns to Trinket and grabs the bear by his face, scratching behind his eyes, dropping a kiss on his cold nose. “Now, Trinket, Uncle Vax loves you! Take good care of your mom. You know how she gets, and just remember of the two of them, Percival is the soft touch and he will sneak you food. ”

He looks up Vex rolling her eyes. “He does not. He will not.”

“Yes, he does.” He flicks one of her owl bear feathers. “We’ll visit soon.”

Vex nods and steps back. She really is the braver and stronger one between the two. Vax knows he would have never been able to make the first move. 

As he turns and walks towards the tree he catches Keyleth’s eyes. She smiles, soft and a bit sad. Vax tells her he’s ready. 

Just as Keyleth is about to the tree, Vax is weak. He’s always been, and is already looking over his shoulder just as Vex calls out his name. Keyleth stops and Vax fully turns. 

He catches his sister half way and he doesn’t know who is hugging the other one harder. He can barely breathe, but it doesn’t matter. He can feel her wet cheek touch his own and he hugs her tighter. Her fingers bite into his shoulders. 

“You’ll visit really soon…” he hears her mutter by his neck. 

Vax nods, squeezing his eyes shut trying to stop his tears. “So soon, the soonest. I’ll be here next week. If you want, I’ll be here tomorrow.”

Vex’s laughter is a bit wet, but he’ll take it. “Maybe not tomorrow. Get settled, be happy, fix up your house because I want to hear all about it.”

“Next week then.” He promises into her hair. 

\- 

“Next week then,” she echoes, pulling back.

As they face each other, Vex sucks in a deep breath and tells her brother the only secret she’s ever been afraid to tell him:

“I don’t think I know how to do this without you, Vax.” 

His eyes go wide. Shock and disbelief war in them until they settle into look she sees in his face often but one she’s never fully felt she deserved. Pride.

“Vex’ahlia, you are the bravest woman I know. I’d say strongest, but we both know we’re weak as shit. And even so, you have the most resilient heart I’ve ever seen. You don’t need me, sister. I’d even go as far to say you never have, but I don’t fancy getting punched.” Somehow she knows that’s been his greatest secret from her too. 

She punches him anyway. “Don’t be stupid, I’ll always need you.” Pulling him down, she hugs him again. The ache in her chest has lessened. His belief in her has always gotten her through some of her worst moments. She doesn’t know how to make him understand that, but maybe he doesn’t have to. “I’ll always need you, brother,” she whispers. 

“You’ll always have me, Stubbs.” Vax smiles at her and kisses her forehead. “I want you to be happy, Vex’ahlia. I want you to be the _happiest_.”

“I am,” she says, and it’s not a lie. She is the happiest she’s been in her life, except for knowing her brother will be away from her. Part of her wants to follow him, part of her wants him to stay. She guesses that won’t change anytime soon. Maybe ever, but it’s time. And maybe it’s okay it’s time. Behind him, Keyleth waits and Percy stands next to her. 

They got really lucky with those two, she thinks. At least they understand. Smiling, she realises just how true her previous statement was. “I am happy, and I want you to be happy too, Vax.”

He looks over his shoulder. Keyleth brightens in a way she only does with Vax. “I am happy, sister,” he says looking back at her. 

Vex can’t help but try and memorise the differences in their faces. The way his brows are thicker and he’s got a scar by his hairline she doesn’t. The way his lips are wider and his nose a bit longer. She never thought she’d have to miss her brother’s face, but strangely she already does. 

Grabbing one of his hands, she reaches up and plucks one of the raven feathers he wears behind his ear. Vax eyes her and lets her, his eyes going wide when she reaches for one of her own feathers. She places his feather in the hand she was holding and at the same time they tuck their respective feathers behind each other’s ears. 

They look even more alike than usual like this. It makes Vex grin. Vax echoes it. 

“I love you, sister.”

“I love you, brother.”

This time when Vax walks to the tree Vex doesn’t call him back, even if part of her wants to, but that part of her is quieter than before. Keyleth opens up the tree and waves to her and Percy, walking through with tears in her eyes and Vax holding her hand. Her brother looks back as the tree closes. He winks at them. Vex snorts and reaches for Percy’s hand. 

“They’re gone now,” she says, but the words don’t hurt like she thought they would. They’re still alive and they’re happy. She’s still alive and happy. Next to her Percival is still alive and happy, even if he’s a complete tit about admitting it. 

As if to prove her wrong, he wraps his arm around her shoulder and kisses her cheek. Together, they make their way up to the castle, their way home.

Half way up, Percy glances at her and hands her... a Gatestone? She eyes him. “I know how that was hard for you, and I know that was harder for him, so I didn’t want to interrupt, but I figured I should tell you now, me and Keyleth made some Gatestones of our own.” 

Vex pauses and falls one step behind as she processed his words. Immediately she rushes up and grabs Percy’s arm. “What!”

“Hmm, well, I thought it was incredibly unfair that only Keyleth can travel back and forth as she pleases. We should have a way to visit as well. It’s only proper as they do now live in the most awkward of locations.” He says all of this in his most put upon tone, with that glint of mischief in his eyes. 

Vex giggles and jumps up to wrap her arms around his neck. “You wonderful man!”

They stumble into the doors of the castle lips attached. It’s nice to be home, even if part of it is away.

\- 

In Zephra, Keyleth turns to Vax as they finish unpacking. 

“Oh, by the way, here!” She says, tossing him something. 

Vax’s hand barely manage to catch the object. It takes him a second to recognise what is it is. But… 

“Keeks?”

“Percy and Tary helped me make some. Then I said wouldn’t be neat if we could send messages with them too and then Percy said he’s got an idea. Well, you know how he gets.” She grins at him over their bed, gently placing her headpiece on the table beside it. It’s late in the evening in Zephra and they’ve spent most of the day dealing with setting everything up in between Keyleth’s duties and his overseeing the new temple she’s surprised him with at the edge of village where the wind still blows too hard. It’s pretty perfect really. 

“He also said something about how there was no need to give you two separation anxiety. That one’s for you. Vex has the other one, obviously.”

Vax laughs, shaking his head. “That wonderful bastard.” Looking up at Keyleth, he’s blown away not for the first time at how fucking amazing she is. “You’re amazing. This means a lot to me. More than I can explain.”

Keyleth walks over to him and cups his cheeks and kisses him. “You’re my family and so are they. I’d never want us to be too far away from each other anyway.”

“Thank you, by the way. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you, I hope you know that.” 

She grins. “Me too, met too.”

Wrapping his arms around her, Vax kisses her back. If home is where the heart is, he’s lucky he’s got more than one place he can call as such. 

-

Vex is hanging out with Trinket while Percy is blowing something up in his workshop with Tary. Cassandra is in her study. Pike and Grog won’t be back for a few weeks. It’s been a lazy day. 

She senses the presence in the room about two-seconds before a body collides with her.

“Stubby!” Her brother’s voice slams into her ear, his arm wrap around her neck from behind. He lifts her up from the bench. The both topple over backwards. 

“Ow, you dick! That hurt! I’m a fucking lady now, you can’t just tackle me.” She elbows him and in less than two-seconds they’re rolling around on the floor. He pokes her in the ribs, she pulls on his ears. Around them Trinket huffs and slobbers over them. By where the door is, Vex hears: “Well, they seem fine. Tea, Keyleth?”

“Ooh, yes! And I brought some from home! We call it _Chaiiiiiii_! It’s from Terra, and really just means tea, but it’s so good! And I got some pottery for Tary and the house… Oh, by the way, is Cassandra around? I brought her some oolong! I was thinking about Scanlan the other day and how he always… anyway! She might like some new teas! And then I asked my dad about it and he told me that we actually grow it but call it….” 

Keyleth and Percy’s voices drift off and finally Vex gets a good angle on her brother’s stomach. Her knee connects and he rolls off, groaning. Vex blows her hair out of her face and drops on her back next to him. Trinket gives them one more slobbery kiss and settles by their feet. They bump their heads together before laying back down, twin grins aimed at the ceiling. It’s just like those days oh so long ago, running around after each other with the safety in the knowledge that they’d always be together. It’s not quite the same. Always is a harder word than they understood back then, but at with all the adventures and trials that lie behind them they’re still together and that’s good enough. It’s better than enough. 

-

Going back to the middle, they think about that night. 

The first time they ever spent more than one night apart in Vasselhiem. They both agree it sucked goliath balls, but later, after a lot of time passed they see it as something else. It was the beginning of them growing up in a way they hadn’t considered before. It’s the beginning of them growing into a version of themselves that can survive without each other. Something they’ve rallied against since they were seven. 

It’s the beginning of a year of change.

They learn through death, fire, truth, blood, fate, hell, and love, that they can live without each other, they can survive without each other. (Can they really? It’s a question that burns them. They’re still together after all, they haven’t allowed the world to separate them yet.) The branch they thought they’d always shared split once again however. More threads get woven together in the mantel of their lives. It strengthens them, it humbles them. They learn that growing up doesn’t have to mean growing apart. And that leaving each other apart doesn’t mean forgetting each other.

Many nights after that first one in Vasselheim, they sit on the roof of the castle in Whitestone. The moon is full and plays hide and seek with the clouds and the rising sun. The city is quiet, as it always is at night. Some of the Briarwood’s influence will take much longer to heal, and according to Percy Whitestone was never really known for it’s nightlife.

Vax nudges her shoulder as they watch the pale sun rise in the winter morning. Everyone is sleeping in the castle under. Under them the Ziggurat awaits. Orcus waits. 

“Hey, remember that day in Vasselheim? In the Slayer’s Take?” 

Vex nods. How can she forget? “First time we ever spent a night more than five feet away from each other.”

“Yeah, sounds crazy when you say like that.” Vax smiles, its edges are sad but she knows her brother’s smile better than her own. He’s not sad for them, he's sad for how they used to be. So scared of the world, so untrusting of anything and anyone not each other. Even being with the rest of Vox Machina at that point they hadn’t felt completely at home. 

“Now look at us,” she says, grinning. “Still not five feet away from each other.” She nudges him back under their shared blanket.

Vax laughs, wrapping an arm around her. Vex leans into her brother’s side. “You know you can’t get rid of me, Stubby,” he says, pretending not to lie as he rubs at his chest where the bruise from his goddess blooms. She lets him. They’ve both died too many times to know to think they’re invincible anymore. One day they both know it’ll stick. They swallow in unison. A weird tick they forget they still do when nervous about talking about something. “But, one day…”

“Yeah, I know,” Vex says. “You’ll be in Zephra, being Keyleth’s house husband. And I’ll be…” she can’t say it. She can’t imagine a world without Vax at her side.

“You’ll be here in Whitestone, being a fucking Baroness, helping Percival make this city great again.” He says it with all the confidence in the world, for her. Vex feels her eyes start to tear up. Vax tugs on her braid. “But before that, we have a fucking demon to kill and death marble to figure out.” Vax sounds both sad and excited. Vex knows the feeling. 

Something feels like it’s ending, but it doesn’t feel like an end. It feels like… 

Growth. She thinks of Fenthras, of the tree that grows out of death. They’re that tree, their branches spreading out wide and blooming. 

Vex grins at the rising sun. “Fuck yeah we do. And we’re gonna be awesome.”

“Aren’t we always sister?”


End file.
